Crankshaft Position Sensor: Description and Operation

Dual Crankshaft Sensor:

The Crankshaft Sensor is mounted on the front of the engine near the harmonic balancer. The crankshaft sensor is a Hall-Effect switch which depends on the metal interrupter ring, mounted on the harmonic balancer to activate it. Windows in the interrupter activate the Hall-Effect switch as they provide a path for the magnetic field between the switch's transducer and it's magnet. When the Hall-Effect switch is activated, it grounds the crank signal line to the C3I Module, pulling the crank signal lines applied voltage low, which is interpreted by the ECM as a crank signal. Because of the way the signal is created, the signal generated is high or low (square wave signal) and three signal pulses are created during each crankshaft revolution. The reference signal created by the crankshaft sensor is used by the ECM to determine engine speed (rpm) and crankshaft position. The crankshaft sensor on this engine is not adjustable.